---
title: The cat was on the table, and with two or three shakes a number of r… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The cat was on the table, and with two or three shakes a number of rats were lying dead round him. Who acts: cat, two, rats. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 18, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 18, sentence 39

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The cat was on the table, and with two or three shakes a number of rats were lying dead round him.

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**Who acts:** cat, two, rats · **What happens:** be, shake, lie · **To what, where:** table, number

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 18. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (cat, two, rats), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg2435:18:39
# text = The cat was on the table, and with two or three shakes a number of rats were lying dead round him.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	on	on	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	table	table	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
9	with	with	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	nsubj	_	_
11	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	10	conj	_	_
13	shakes	shake	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	number	number	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
17	rats	rat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj	_	_
18	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	lying	lie	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	15	acl	_	_
20	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	xcomp	_	_
21	round	round	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the cat |  |  | the table |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **shake** | present | two | a number |  |  |  |  | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent number=Patient |
| 3 | **lie** | past · progressive | rats | a number *not said here* |  |  |  | dead *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location number=Theme |

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One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 2435 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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